There's must be some serious differences in grading and analysis between Lance and PFF. In his write-ups Donaldson's a mess, and has been since he started writing them up.
What funny is I can recreate PFF’s grades almost to the number.
Sometimes I practice by taking a game from Dolphins draft picks or free agent signings and see what I get. Then I look up their grade for the game.
My point in doing so is two fold: I want to see if I feel PFF is worth putting stock in (they’re getting better as they hire better people) and to get another set on if I’m being biased.
I took an Austin Jackson game and gave him a 70.3 while PFF gave him a 69.8. Then I took Erick Flowers and gave him a 70.7 while PFF gave him a 70.3.
I do think they grade on outcome a little more than I do. I’ll screenshot your butt doing a pirouette and call it out, where if the player doesn’t take advantage, PFF doesn’t see it as negatively as I do.
PFF tends to overrate QB’s who make plays in muddy pockets in college. Players like Burrow and Baker Mayfield get pushed up their boards, when that stuff doesn’t translate as well to the pros. The consistent, make the throw on time, where it should be stuff translates and is why I had Tua ahead of Burrow.
This doesn’t mean I’m right, they’re wrong. It just means this is my process and I continue to try to evolve. I had a former coach reach out and tell me I was seeing something wrong in my evaluation (Tommy Kennedy, actually). Talked to me about the fact that if an OT is giving up his chest and being dog walked into his QB’s lap at that level, he wouldn’t see the field at P5. He was right and I was very wrong. Learned from that and now I try to heavily weight the competition in my evaluations. That’s why I’ve started including who the reps are against when it’s relevant so I give context to the talent being faced.
